TARGET INCLUDES HANDICAPPED CHILDREN IN SUNDAY ADS

The first time, you chalk it up to an error. Either the modeling agency sent over a model in a wheelchair by mistake, or the youngster had an accident on the set and Target gamely carried on. When a child using a walker appears weeks later, however, the truth slowly sinks in; Target is making a concerted effort to include handicapped children in its Sunday ads.

And why not?

Well it hasn't been done much before. A blue jeans manufacturer used a man in a wheelchair in one ad, but despite the attention paid to making jobs and rest rooms accessible to the handicapped -- or the alternatively abled, as they prefer to be called -- they continue to lead lives virtually hidden from public view. Until now.

Target, the Midwest's version of Kmart, has quietly taken a courageous step in advertising; as of last year, the Minneapolis-based company has been including handicapped children in its Sunday advertising on a systematic basis. The in-house ads are inserted in 35 million newspapers distributed in 32 states, and the response has been, well, surprising.

"We didn't realize at the time that we were doing anything all that unusual, but apparently we were the first major national retail advertiser to employ disabled children as models on a regular basis," says George Hite, vice president of public and consumer affairs. "We didn't even know if anybody would notice."

Why do it at all? Well, to hear Hite tell it, community service is a corporate philosophy at Target. The company's vice president of advertising and the person responsible for the print ad program has one child with asthma and another born without a hand. Hite has worked with programs providing rehabilitation for children with disabilities in the Twin City area. And last month, Hite and his wife were host to a family from Ireland whose son, a Downs Syndrome child, was participating in the Special Olympics' equestrian category.

"This is Minnesota. We care about people up here," Hite says with all the sincerity of Garrison Keillor. "We take good care of each other."

Of course company officials were well aware that their motives could be suspect in other, not-so-naive parts of the world. "We were concerned, frankly, that we might be viewed as exploiting children with disabilities," Hite says.

So they set certain parameters for the program: ads would feature children who were truly disabled, not models posing in wheelchairs; disabled children would be included only when appropriate, not every week and, finally, the disabled children would pose in a setting with other children.

"We wanted to have them doing things kids normally do and with other kids," Hite says.

Since the program debuted, Target has featured 10 children with disabilities. And the company has been flooded with letters from the parents of disabled children.

As a result, the company has flown disabled children to the Twin Cities from as far away as Tamarac to pose for the ads. Target pays them the standard fee. The Tamarac youth was featured in the July 28 insert, but his mother wishes to avoid publicity and requested that his name not be used.

Hite also avoids publicity. Target sent no news releases, made no calls and hired no representative to bring its beneficient gesture to public attention. "We view it as part of our mission here to encourage other advertisers to consider disabled people as model candidates," he says, "and, actually, we were kind of hoping a day will come when nobody will notice."